Carton holder



United States Patent CARTON HOLDER Walter Kondrat, 1921 N. Whipple St., Chicago, Ill.

Filed Nov. 14, 1958, Ser. No. 773,975

2 Claims. (Cl. 248145.6)

This invention relates to collapsible type wire holders for milk cartons and the like, to facilitate handling of the cartons and pouring of the contents therefrom as from a pitcher.

The object of this invention is to provide a simple collapsible wire-frame holder for milk or cream cartons and the like, with a handle for application to a carton to facilitate the handling of the carton and its use as a pitcher, without danger of its slipping or being accldentally crushed, as might happen when it 15 handled without this holder, because of the usual slippery wax finish on these cartons, their fragility and the mass of the liquid contents.

A further object is to make this holder with a wireframe handle linked between two wire loops for properly vertically spacing the loops when placed around the carton, and to fix a pair of basket wires under the lower loop for the bottom of the carton to rest on when the holder is applied thereto.

Other and more specific objects will appear in the following detailed description of one form of the present invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the holder in folded or collapsed position.

Fig. 2 is a side view of the holder as applied to a carton, and

Fig. 3 is a front view thereof.

The holder illustrated in this drawing is made entirely of heavy wire framework comprising an upper loop frame 10, a lower loop frame 12, and an intermediate.

handle frame 14 linked between the two loops by hinged eye connections. The lower loop frame has a pair of rectangular basket wires 16 fixed under the loop to form a shallow basket in which the carton 18 fits and into which it may be placed either before or after passing the upper loop over the carton. The upper loop may be made to fit loosely around the body of the carton and has to be at least large enough to pass over the flanged top 20 of the carton or other container with which it is to be used.

The upper loop has its open ends terminating in a pair of parallel eyelets 22 extending rearwardly from the middle of its rear side. These eyelets are held together by the upper end of the handle frame, which has a transverse portion 24 passing through the eyelets to form a hinge therewith, and side portions 26 which are bent at right angles to the hinge portion 24 on the outside of the eyelets. The side portions of the handle frame are curved rearwardly to provide a suitable handle clearance between the handle and the rear side of the carton to allow a convenient hand grip around the handle, when in use.

The lower ends of the side portions 26 are formed into eyelets 28, which are loosely hinged by interlooping with a pair of parallel eyelets 30 formed at the open 2 ends of the lower loop and extending rearwardly and upwardly from the middle of its rear side. Eyelets 30 may be made in parallel planes normal to the rear side of the loop of frame 12, and eyelets 28 in a plane normal to these planes.

The hinged connections at the top and bottom of the handle frame permit the device to be folded or collapsed into a substantially fiat rectangular space, when it is not applied to the carton, for convenient handling and stowage when the device is not in use, as well as for packing and distribution by the manufacturer of these devices in conveniently small box containers.

While only one form of carton is shown in the drawing, it will be readily understood that the device is applied to other forms and sizes of milk or cream or other liquid cartons or containers within a wide range of dimensions, because cylindrical containers, such as cans may also be held similarly by this device even though they are considerably smaller in girth than the loop frames of the device, and even though they may be con siderably taller than the cartons. shown. In any case, the top of the container may be passed up through the upper loop frame sufiiciently to clear the lower loop frame and then set down into the lower loop frame while the upper loop is held up in a horizontal position. Then,

as the upper loop is released, it will drop to a diagonal position so as to Wedge itself against the front and rear sides of the container, and thus take up any play from front to rear between the handle and the upper portion of the carton, so as to steady it in the tipping operation for pouring the contents from the container. Thus a steady operation is provided for a wide range of sizes and shapes of containers, with one side of the device, altho suitable sizes of the device may be made to fit more closely each size of standard cartons of any particular liquid commodity, for use with corresponding sizes of cartons, in accordance with the demand.

Many obvious modifications in sizes and arrangements of the detail forms of the several parts of this device may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention, as defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A carton holder comprising a pair of open wire loops formed to fit loosely around the upper and lower portions of a carton, each loop having parallel eyelets formed from its adjacent open ends, and a stiff wire handle hingedly linked between the eyelets and outwardly curved in normal use to provide convenient handling, said lower loop having wire portions forming a shallow basket to support the bottom of the carton.

2. A carton holder as defined in claim 1, said handle comprising a substantially narrow inverted U-shaped wire, the ends of the sides of the U being formed into eyelets linked to the eyelet ends of said lower wire loop, and the closed end of the U being substantially rectangular, the transverse portion between the sides of the U being passed through the eyelets of the upper loop.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,043,458 OQuinn Nov. 5, 1912 2,279,442 Burns Apr. 14, 1942 2,730,278 Sherlowsky Jan. 10, 1056 2,867,364 Bramante Ian. 6, 1959 2,888,179 'Duggett May 26, 1959 FOREIGN PATENTS 306,328 Switzerland June 16, 1955 1,067,004 France Jan. 27, 1954 

